The Honeymoon Stage
by Write-To-You
Summary: (Set in season 4) Caitlin comes back to Team Flash, and she and Julian begin to "officially" date. But problems arise when they try to kiss. (rated T for some mildly/implied suggestive scenes and kissing)


**Author's Note: I have no clue what inspired me to write this. It's kind of a really, really random idea.**

 **But, hey, that's like 80% of my ideas, right?**

Once Caitlin returned to Team Flash, Julian's world sealed itself back together. All of the broken, jagged pieces formed into something resembling a life with just one of her smiles.

When they started dating... his world sort of spontaneously combusted again, but it all the right ways.

That was until they tried to kiss, anyway.

It was a starry night, and it was clear and cold so they were holding hands as they walked down the street. They arrived at Caitlin apartment complex, where Julian usually dropped her off, and she gave him such an inviting smile that he could resist.

He leaned down and kissed her.

It wasn't their _first_ kiss, but it was their first kiss since they had figured everything out and started "officially" dating, so it felt like it.

Until cold started to seep into Julian's face. He fought it for as long as he possibly could, before his teeth began to ache from the ice creeping across his cheeks. Abruptly, Caitlin let out a gasp and pulled back.

She ran that night, again, and it took him the better part of 2 hours to convince her that he was _fine_ , and that no permanent damage had been done.

They went to Cisco for help, feeling like a twosome going in for couple's counseling as they sat in front of his desk.

"What seems to be the problem?" Cisco asked, laying his fingertips together in a way reminiscent of the man on the front of the Mastermind board game box cover.

"We can't kiss." Julian said immediately.

" _What he means to say_ ," Caitlin interrupted, glaring at both the boys, for different reasons. "Is that when we try to kiss, I lose control of my powers. And you know what happens if I kiss someone when I'm turned on. I mean, when my powers are turned on." She flushed red, an unusual color to see on her these days.

Cisco nodded sagely, choosing to ignore that last bit. "I see. The ol' popsicle conundrum, huh?"

Caitlin nodded. Julian let out a sigh. "I can't go my whole life without kissing her. I seriously don't think it's humanly possible."

"Well, I'm not going to put on power dampening jewelry every single time we want to kiss!" Caitlin exclaimed. "We could never be spontaneous. _Never_. And do you know how much of a pain it is to have my hair changing from brown to white to brown to white to brown to white and back again?"

"Also, you'd never be able to kiss in public." Cisco added. "For the hair reason." He leaned foreword a little, considering them. "Would you mind demonstrating? Just kiss each other, pretend I'm not here."

"That's not an easy feat, mate." Julian muttered, but he turned so he could place his hand on Caitlin's cheek. She leaned foreword and kissed him (the first time, actually, that _she_ had ever kissed _him_ \- of course it _had_ to be in front of Cisco-).

Caitlin tried to focus on withholding her powers and keeping her lips warm and ice-free. Then Julian did this thing, with his mouth, where he sort of changed positions and sucked on her bottom lip and who wants to focus on anything other then kissing when they're kissing someone?

Julian pulled away with a pained gasp and Caitlin's eyes zapped open. She slapped a hand over her mouth. "Julian! I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry."

He shivered, pressing his warm hands to his tinged-blue lips. "Quite alright."

Cisco frowned, watching them. He was silent for a long moment. Then he sighed. "Yeah, I got nothing."

"What?" Caitlin gaped at him. "Cisco Ramon, inventor extraordinaire? And you've got _nothing_?"

"What are we going to _do_?!" Julian groaned, burying his face in his hands. "Why can't our life just be simple for once? Why can't we have a break? We save the universe _so_ much, why can't it just be kind to us?"

Caitlin reached over and took his hand, Cisco pretending not to notice the way her lip wobbled as he shuffled around some useless papers.

"Hey." Caitlin whispered calmingly. "We're going to figure this out, alright? Trust me. Even if it means that I have to put on some sort of power dampening cuff every time we want to kiss."

"That's not fair to you." Julian shook his head, straightening and intertwining their fingers more firmly.

Cisco let out a heavy sigh and rubbed at the bottom half of his face. "Honestly, the only thing I can think of is something that could permanently turn off your powers to just your lips. You'd have to, like, wear a lip ring or something. And considering that all of this is to make your kissing life easier..."

"No." Caitlin said firmly, Julian nodding his agreement. "I am _not_ getting a lip piercing."

"Alright, alright!" Cisco held up his hands in surrender, then rooted through his desk drawer. He eventually pulled out two thin bracelets, glowing with a familiar bluish light, and slid them across the table. "Here. I remade you're power dampening cuffs so that they'd be smaller and hold their charge longer. You know... just in case."

They left STAR Labs discouraged and without a plan. Once they got to Caitlin's apartment, however, they stopped and simply looked at each other.

"I guess..." Julian trailed off, swallowing. "I guess this is goodnight. I mean, this is usually the part where I give you a goodnight kiss, but..."

His eyes fell unconsciously to her lips and Caitlin's body buzzed, her breaths coming out short and quick. "I- I- yeah."

They kept staring at each other, and Julian took a step closer before he paused again. "I- I should go."

"Yeah." Caitlin repeated.

Neither of them moved.

"Oh, heck with it." Caitlin growled, grasping in her bag and slipping on her new power dampening cuffs.

Warmth rushed through veins, a sensation she was so unused to it almost made her lightheaded. Her hair turned brown and color flooded back into her cheeks, turning them a light, rosy pink.

Julian's mouth descended on her's before the transformation could even finish. He roved over her lips for as long as he could without taking a breath, knowing that this could very well be the last time they were able to do this. He kissed her in so many ways possible that Caitlin forgot anything but the slide of his mouth and her own soft gasps.

Julian's head tilted, rubbing his nose across her collarbone and kissing down her neck. Caitlin moaned. She hadn't been kissed like this in _years_ , not since Ronnie and her were engaged.

Julian's lips found a spot behind her ear and he sucked on it gently. Caitlin ripped herself away, gasping for breath, grabbed his hand, and dragged him up to her apartment.

The cuffs didn't come back off until around 11 o'clock, when Julian finally forced himself to leave. Caitlin laid back on her bed, lips aching and delightfully swollen. She was sure that she would have at least one hickey tomorrow, but couldn't bring herself to dread what Cisco might say.

 _It could be like this_. A voice in her head told her. _It could be like this all the time. You know what you have to do_.

The next morning, Caitlin came into STAR Labs wearing a lightweight scarf. Cisco gave her a suspicious look. "So... how'd my cuffs work last night?"

Caitlin forced herself to not have any reaction. "I don't know what you're talking about."

He let it drop.

When Julian showed up that afternoon after work, he gave her a shy smile and sat down at her desk. "Hey."

"Hey, so I was wondering." Caitlin took a shaky breath, needing to get this out as quickly as possible- before she lost her nerve. "Do you... do you still have the cure? The one that you made before we killed Savitar that could... that could turn me back into non-meta Caitlin Snow?"

Julian's eyes bulged. "You- you can't be serious."

"Do you still have it?"

"Yes, but... Caitlin, you can't go back. If you take that cure... your powers, being a superhero... all of that's over." Julian pressed. "I can't let you do that for me."

"It's not for you." Caitlin said firmly. "It's for me."

"Just- just think it through before you do this, ok?" Julian pleaded, eyes nervous. "I don't want you to do something you regret."

"If it means having a normal life... having a normal life with _you_ , I won't regret it." Caitlin whispered. "I promise."

He still wouldn't let her have the cure, which Caitlin thought was in parts sweet and in parts annoying. It was _her_ decision after all. And while she got that he didn't want her to make a rash one, she still wanted to do _something_ , before she lost her nerve.

Cisco happened to agree with Julian. "Just... give me a week, ok? Give me a week. I'll see what I can come up with."

A week passed and Cisco had gotten nowhere on solving the problem. Caitlin had begun to use her power dampening cuffs on a regular basis now, because she and Julian were going through what Cisco liked to call "the Honeymoon Stage".

"It's completely normal for couples in their early stages." He assured her, even though she wasn't all that worried and didn't really need reassurance. "I've gone through that faze _loads_ of times. I'm sure even Barry and Iris did."

" "Even" Barry and Iris?" Caitlin repeated, raising her eyebrows. "What makes them so different from other couples?"

"Well, they're, you know, _them_." Cisco sort-of explained. She raised her eyebrows higher. "They're... sappy."

She gave Cisco and Julian a week and a half (they earned it) until she brought the cure up again.

"We're never going to _stop_ wanting to kiss." She started, giving Julian's arm a squeeze and the rest of him a smile. "It's human nature, and it's not right for us to fight it just because I'm not... normal."

Julian swallowed, and she could just barely see his hands trembling. "Caitlin... doing this... there's no going back."

"I know." She whispered. "I know. But that's okay."

He made her promise them one more day, and as much as it pained her, she agreed. "But _you_ need to promise _me_ that you'll let me do this." She said seriously, staring into his eyes and feeling that familiar, lovely pull to kiss him again.

"Ok." Julian whispered. "Ok."

She slid on the cuffs and let his glorious mouth roam over her's once more.

Cisco walked in on them before they could get too far, coughing very loudly upon entrance.

"Good." He said, still loudly, looking away until they broke apart and stepped all the way away from each other. "You're still here. I have something I think you guys will like."

He led them to his lab, where about a dozen vials of swirling bluish liquid were seated in a small grey case.

"I didn't tell either of you about this, because I wasn't sure it would work, and I didn't want to get anyone's hopes up." Cisco explained, fingering one of the vials as he spoke. "I began working on this before Caitlin excepted her powers, in the hopes that maybe this would help her to access them without the downside of Killer Frost in her head."

Caitlin frowned at her friend. "I don't understand. How is this going to help me to be able to kiss Julian without letting go of my powers?"

"Well..." Cisco scrunched up his nose. "It's not exactly. You're still going to have to take the cure, and become brown haired Caitlin Snow again permanently. But when trouble arises and we need Frost and her cold powers, all you have to do is drink one of these bad boys." He tossed her a vial and she caught it, looking it over as it rolled in her palm. "And _bam!_ Your powers are back for a limited amount of time. Kind of like Velocity 9, but better and less dangerous."

"Cisco..." Caitlin shook her head. "This is amazing."

"Yeah, mate, this is perfect!" Julian beamed. He tugged Caitlin into his side and kissed the top of her head happily. "This is exactly what we needed."

"There's- there's one catch." Cisco rubbed the back of his neck, and a frown flitted across Caitlin's face. His eyes were unnerving her. "I can't seem to work out all the kinks so there's... there's a possibility that it won't be _Caitlin_ once she drinks the serum. It might be Killer Frost, all over again. And I know how hard you've worked to get yourself used to your powers and everything. This... this could erase all of that."

Caitlin felt a sinking emotion in her stomach, but she resisted the urge to curl into a ball and give up. She knew that she would have to make a decision, eventually.

She chose Julian. Every time.

"I'll do it."

"You barely even thought about it!" Cisco protested, but Caitlin was already turning to Julian pleadingly.

"Please. Give me the cure."

He swallowed nervously, Adam's apple bobbing for a moment as he tried to speak. "I- I- Okay. Okay, give me a minute."

A few moments later, Caitlin was back in the Cortex, holding the cure in her hands. Her fingers trembling as she uncorked the vial, bringing it slowly to her mouth. She wanted it over. She wanted it done quickly.

But she couldn't seem to move any faster.

Just before she swallowed the cure, Julian's hand stopped her. "Caitlin... are you sure?"

"Yes." She breathed, and tilted it back.

Immediately, warmth rushed into her body, more powerful then the cuffs could ever be. Caitlin staggered to the side, Julian catching hold of her and holding fast as her world tilted for a moment. Her body was unbearably hot, searing hot. How did people breath through all that _heat_?

When the haze in her brain cleared, she was lying in her office with a blanket tucked around her shoulders. Her skin felt warm and human, her hair dark against her shoulders once again.

"How long was I out?" She asked in a hoarse voice to Julian, sitting in the chair beside her.

He looked up from their intertwined hands, a smile of relief spreading across his face. "Not too long. How do you feel?"

"Warm." Caitlin said, unable to hold back her laugh. "And it's _so_ nice."

"Shall we, uh, try it out then? See if it worked?" Julian asked, looking a little nervous.

Caitlin nodded breathlessly, sitting up so she could lean foreword and kiss him.

And once Julian realized he wasn't going to freeze, he kissed her back.

 **Author's Note: I honestly don't know how I feel about that, ya know? I mean, I wanted it to be all sunshine and roses and YAY everything gets solved with a happy ending as soon as Cisco gets on the problem, but I also felt like Caitlin taking the cure had to have some sort of sacrifice attached to it, or it wouldn't have as much meaning.**

 **This was seriously the most, like, "edgy" stuff I've every written, probably! (don't you love how I think that** ** _that_** **was edgy? XD)**

 **ALSO: Let me know! Do you think that "The Honeymoon Stage" is a good title for this story? Or is something about warmth better? COMMENT YOUR ANSWER BELOW!**


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